The hands of the healer: has faith a place?

Dr Davies discusses faith healing, its clients and the healing process. He suggests that typical healers often have a total faith in themselves, their working methods and their systems of belief, sometimes born out of their own previous suffering. Patients do well if they have faith (which needs to be distinguished from credulity) in their healers and this faith should be nurtured and valued. Suggestibility in a patient is highly correlated with the likelihood of a cure. Dr Davies suggests that while physical and psychodynamic explanations may increasingly shed light on the phenomenon offaith healing, there is also increasing public interest in magical and superstitious explanations and techniques. This paper was first presented to a London Medical Group symposium.